


I'll Remember For The Both Of Us

by Tempus_Blue



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who Series 9 - Fandom
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-08
Updated: 2016-02-08
Packaged: 2018-05-19 03:11:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5951635
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tempus_Blue/pseuds/Tempus_Blue
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A one-shot to fill in some missing scenes from Hell Bent. (Clara, Twelfth, Eleventh, Ashildr)</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll Remember For The Both Of Us

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  **Disclaimer:** _I Don't Own Doctor Who_

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 **H** e was unconscious.

Not even slipping in and out of conscious, like he had so long ago on Trenzalore, in his tomb that never was.

There would be no whispering of her name this time. No acknowledgement of her presence in his induced slumber.

But she still knelt beside him, and carefully laid his head upon her lap. Gently cupping those careworn features with her left hand, while she stroked his peppered grey, wavy curls atop his head with her right

"I'm so sorry." Clara Oswald couldn't help but whisper, even though the prone man couldn't hear a word, the tears flowing free from her brown eyes. "You poor clever boy. Every one of you. All these years." She bent down and pulled him into her arms, resting her head against his velvet covered shoulder.

"Clara?" A subdued voice, with all the calmness of her billions of years existence, interrupted the silence, and, slowly, Clara raised her gaze to lock with the shorter brunette woman on the other side of the white, Type-40 TARDIS console.

"I was looking at what I think is the manual." Ashildr...Me...the impossibly ancient woman with a Mire medical chip, (who still looked the barely eighteen she did when Clara had first met her in a Viking farming village.) held up a worn, leather-bound tome.

"I can read only a little Gallifreyan, even after all my years, but I managed to program this capsule for London in twenty-fifteen A.D since we'll need to pick back up his TARDIS." Ashildr paused. "Then what do you propose?"

Smiling down at The Doctor, Clara ran her hand over his face. "Do you know how he looked the first time I saw him?" She voiced, her eyes half-lidded.

Ashildr shook her head, "No. I...he said once to me you'd seen every face up until this one, though," she admitted slowly, leaning against the TARDIS console as she observed the young human woman and the ancient Time Lord.

Clara chuckled a little, but never took her gaze off The Doctor, "He was young. Pale, gangly, and blimey, that chin." She sighed. "I loved him. I fancied every last inch of that lanky, bouncy, silly man."

"He's always The Doctor." Ashildr observed, and Clara nodded, laying The Doctor back down on her lap and studying his features.

"Always. The one I first met, his eyes, though, they were green, matched his sonic screwdriver. Before then they were brown. This one had blue eyes, just like his first ten incarnations. They're beautiful, those eyes of his, aren't they?" Clara's eyes began to glaze over again.

"I would give anything for him to look up at me right now with those sad blue eyes and tell me it's okay, that the device didn't work properly. It was wired for humans so maybe if—"

"And he's very likely part-human, or so I've heard." Ashildr interrupted solemnly, and Clara turned to look at her sharply. "There was an American woman, Dr. Grace Holloway. I was reading something I wrote down a long time ago. She met him in his Eighth incarnation."

Clara furrowed her brow. "Eighth incarnation...the handsome one with the lovely voice? The one who looked like a modern day Lord Byron?" She recalled far back in her memory. "Green velvet frock coat. Very Doctorish."

Ashildr shrugged, folding her arms over her chest. "If you say so. She only spent about a day with The Doctor, but it was soon after his regeneration and he admitted to her that he was half-human, on his mother's side." She looked down at The Doctor with a curious expression.

"It's possible it was regeneration madness. But, he didn't deny it when I asked about it earlier."

Clara nodded slowly, "I heard that over the monitor. So the memory loss?"

"Could be patchy, he might remember bits and pieces, and could even regain all of it in due time. Or it might not have affected him at all." Ashildr chewed her bottom lip in thought. "I want to tell you this was okay, that it was the right thing. But, that's between you and The Doctor."

"I know." Clara responded firmly, beginning to take off The Doctor's black velvet jacket and folding it into a makeshift pillow, lifting The Doctor off her lap and placing his head down upon it, she gave a soft kiss to his cheek, before getting to her booted feet.

Ashildr's dark gaze watched the younger woman move over to the console monitor. "So, after London?" She questioned again.

Clara rubbed the back of her neck, semi-conscious of the countdown tattoo still there. "We need somewhere remote. I need to make sure he's okay, he gets to his TARDIS, and we also have a moment to talk."

*******

It had been hard to play a stranger to someone who should know you, and listen to the same person talk to you like a stranger, but somehow Clara managed to do it.

She let the man she had known all his life walk away, with only scattered memories of their time together, strumming a sad, wistful tune on his dark cherry coloured electric guitar, his blue gaze unknowing.

But his words, about being in the diner with Amy and Rory Pond years ago...Ashildr managed to get the exact date from The Doctor's temperamental TARDIS, via a link between the two sister Type-40 TARDIS'.

It was known to Clara that there had to be one last moment on Utah between her and The Doctor, before it had to be left up to providence as to their meeting again.

So soon, her TARDIS was berthed somewhere in Utah, and Clara was cleaning down the counter, working alongside a few employees she'd hired to keep up the illusion, when she heard the familiar wheezing, groaning noise coming from the back of the diner.

And then, after a few moments, the dinging of the entrance bell, as a lanky, tweed wearing figure strolled in to join the few customers loitering about.

Biting her lower lip, caught between amusement and pain at the sight of the swaggering stride of the sandy-haired young man, Clara watched as he wondered over to the counter and grinned down at her. "Hello there!"

Matching that toothy grin, Clara leaned forward, "Hi there yourself," she couldn't help but flirt, delighting in the slight blush that came to those oh so familiar, broad features.

"Blimey, what's an English girl like you doing out here?" The young man questioned, his green eyes full of curiosity, observing her with more than a little interest.

Clara chuckled as she took out a pen from her apron, "Wanted to travel the world, working to pay my way," she tapped his nose with the end of the pen. "How about you, what brings an English boy like you out here?"

Shrugging, the young man hopped up on the stool, "Passing through, I do a lot of travelling myself." He spun around, before facing the counter and flopping his arms out in front of him. "I have my own private vehicle, actually. Can go wherever I please."

Clara laughed, "Sounds like fun." She made sure to keep her tone playful, like she only half-believed him.

The young man held out his hand, "I'm The Doctor." He introduced.

Grasping his hand, Clara raised her eyebrows. "A doctor, well, that explains how you can afford a private vehicle to travel the world."

The Doctor nodded and looked down at her name tag. "Clara. Nice name." He leaned forward suddenly and Clara took a step backwards, "Sorry," The Doctor apologised quickly. "I'm sorry, but...have we met before? You look...like someone I should know." He paused.

"Could I get a drink?"

Smiling kindly, Clara reached behind the counter, "Coke?" He nodded and she pulled out a cold glass bottle from the icebox below the counter, using a bottle opener to knock the metal cap off, and Clara slid the drink over to him, the gangly Time Lord's gaze never leaving her.

"Are you sure we haven't met?" The Doctor questioned again, and Clara leaned forward.

"This is starting to sound like song, Doctor. _What A Fool Believes_?"

Leaning forward again, The Doctor cocked his head to the side, his lanky hair covering up the left half of his face. "I've been known to play the fool before." He responded.

Clara moved in closer, so that they were a hairsbreadth apart. "And do you believe we've met before?" She inquired, watching his green eyes scan her with that quickness of thought, that Clara had not yet realised she missed.

The Doctor smiled, "Maybe it's a case of you've met me, but I haven't quite met you, yet."

Clara waggled a finger, "Ah, but maybe we have met and you don't remember me." She voiced, trying to keep the emotion away.

Letting out a small laugh, The Doctor pushed back his lanky fringe as he shook his head, "I think I would remember meeting someone like you, you're quite brilliant." He rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'm travelling alone right now. Are you interested in maybe a new place to travel? Something out of the ordinary, Clara?"

Those words were more painful than she'd realised they could be, and Clara struggled to affix a small smile on her tanned features. "Perhaps." She couldn't help but say. "Maybe after we get to know each other a little better. Are you going to drink that Coke before it goes flat?" Clara added, changing the subject.

Looking down at the glass bottle of brown liquid in front of him, The Doctor frowned contemplatively. "I don't suppose you have a straw that adds extra fizz?" He questioned, and Clara slowly shook her head, biting her lip to stop laughing.

"No. Do you?"

The Doctor nodded, "Luckily I happen to keep a supply in my travelling vehicle, for just such an emergency." He mentioned proudly.

Clara finally let out a laugh, "Well, run you clever boy and go fetch it. You can use the back entrance." She encouraged.

The Doctor immediately sprang to his feet, walking away towards the back entrance, before spinning around and looking back at the blue clad waitress, watching him with a sad smile.

"Don't you go anywhere, I'll be right back to get to know you better, I promise." The Doctor raised both hands to point firmly at Clara, who nodded slowly.

"You'd better keep that promise." She voiced, and The Doctor flashed that boyish grin again, as he nodded, before slipping out the back entrance. "I'll remember for the both of us." Clara added under her breath, looking out through the glass doors, at where she could see The Ponds and their daughter approaching.

Lowering her eyes, the woman caught between her first and last heartbeats pushed through the kitchen doors, out of sight and awaiting the next adventure, but not with The Doctor this time. In her own TARDIS, with perhaps Ashildr, or maybe someone else who needed a little adventure in their lives.

"After all, my Doctor," Clara mused to herself. "I've got a feeling we've both got a long way to go, before we can remember together again."

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**Thank you for reading.**


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